“…just as great men are great disasters, overwhelmingly good poets are overwhelmingly bad influences.”

“One may quote bad poetry if it is by a great poet.”

“He was a great poet" They lamented.

No, he was not a great poet," said Theo, "He was a good poet, he could have been better. That's the real loss don't you see?”

“Indonesia is a country for which I have a great deal of respect and personal affection based on my own time in Indonesia. I want nothing, but the best for Indonesia, and I certainly want, Leigh, I certainly want the boats stopped and that is overwhelmingly in the interests of both our countries.”

“The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest.”

“All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.”

“A great disaster had befallen Russia: Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.”

“Good or bad I propose to be something great!”

“ONAELIA: What sort of poets are there?
POET: Two sorts lady: The great poets and the small poets.
ONAELIA: Great and small! Which do you call the great? The fat ones?”

“I quite like talking myself, but when Peter was in the room there wasn't much point, you just had to listen. He was unimaginably, overwhelmingly gifted. You had to imagine a cross between Dr. Johnson, Isaiah Berlin, Peter Sellers and don't forget Charlie Chaplin — because Peter was a great mime too. … He was inexhaustible. It was like talking to Europe, talking to history.”